


Undercover Lovers

by BlueWingedAngel



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-04
Updated: 2014-10-23
Packaged: 2018-01-03 11:09:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1069762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueWingedAngel/pseuds/BlueWingedAngel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye and Ward are tapped to do a long-term mission undercover as a married couple in the suburbs, investigating disappearances.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> The rating is, for now, T, but will probably increase after a while and will be changed as such.

_ _

_**June**_

It was early when Ward's knuckles rapped against the door of Skye's cubby, five AM according to the clock on the shelf. She was used to being woken up early by Ward, so she'd taken to getting up even _earlier_ , so she'd be dressed and ready to go as soon as he called. 

“Meeting!” Ward informed her and she clambered out of her cubby and eyed him.

“What’s going on?” she asked, trailing after him all the way to the meeting room. 

He ignored her as he moved inside and she sighed because she was used to it, leaning against the table. 

“What’s the situation?” Ward asked Coulson as soon as they were all settled. 

“Undercover mission,” said Coulson. “S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ wants two of us---” 

“Ooohh, undercover?” Skye said excitedly as Ward pulled his _I’m-too-dignified-to-facepalm-but-if-I-wasn’t-there’d-be-a-handprint-on-my-forehead_ face. “I want to do undercover!” 

“---to pose as a married couple,” Coulson finished, looking directly at Skye.

She got a little smaller. “Nyeh, you know what? I’m good right here. I’m much better uncovered.” 

Ward side-eyed her. 

“I meant like... not under...” she whimpered. “Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Ward said. 

“Fitz and I could do it,” Jemma piped up. “We even have our own little language we share, don’t we Fitz?!” 

Leo squinted one eye closed and looked around at her. “Ix-nay on the telling them about our anguage-lay.” 

“Yeah, that’s not yours,” Ward pointed out, “it’s Pig Latin.” 

“Silly, that’s not our language!” Jemma exclaimed. “Ours is far more complex, with _seventy-eight_ letters and pictographs and a system of sounds and vowels that sound a bit like---” 

“Simmons,” Coulson said and she shut up. “They’re looking for two who can pose as a _normal_ newlywed couple. Preferably including a specialist, but unfortunately most of the specialists are trained to work alone with leaves---” 

“Me,” said Ward, narrowing his eyes a little. 

“Do you want me to go undercover with _him?_ ” Jemma said in abject horror. “Fitz is one thing but---” 

“You’re not who I was going to suggest,” said Coulson.

Ward looked at May, who looked back at him, her face a silent and resolute _no_. When he looked back, Coulson was looking at Skye, who was mouthing wordlessly. 

“No,” Ward said instantly. “No way, no.”

“For the first time, I have to say I agree with him on this one, AC,” said Skye.

“You two,” said Coulson. “It’s a big opportunity to earn your stripes with S.H.I.E.L.D., Skye, and a good learning environment for training her, Ward.” 

Ward kept his eyes as narrow slits and didn’t say a word. 

“...I do want my stripes,” Skye said. 

Ward looked at her in utter disbelief, then looked back at Coulson. “Do I have to live with her?” 

“Yes,” said Coulson. 

“Do we have to share a show--I mean bed?” Skye whimpered.

Ward eyed her. 

“I meant bed,” she repeated. 

“That’s not better!” Ward exclaimed. 

“Do you wear pyjamas? You don’t seem like a flannel pyjama-y type guy,” Skye said. “We’ll have to buy you a pair.” 

“You’re assuming I’m going to say yes to this mission,” Ward said. 

“Of course you are!” Skye exclaimed. “You’re being told to by your superior and you’re all Mr-I-Do-As-I’m-Told.” 

“You’d be surprised,” Ward said flatly. 

May slunk over to Coulson’s side. “...are you still sure this is a good idea?” 

“Was I ever?” he replied, watching Ward and Skye bitching at each other. 

“Before you two commit justifiable homicide,” Coulson said, cutting them off. 

“You think it’d be justifiable?” Skye said. 

“Oh yeah, it’d be justifiable right now,” said Ward flatly. 

Coulson pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well, before you _do it_... You two should know the ins and outs of the operation. You’ll be going undercover as a married couple in a suburban environment.” He pulled up an image of a town on the holographic screen and Skye watched it curiously. “There are several houses for sale, so your first undercover assignment will be to check out the houses, pick and buy one. We’ll be giving you a modest stipend, setting you up with jobs and providing you with a selection of objects to bring with you from your last apartment, as well as fake identities, marriage certificates and documentation.” 

“Okay, but what’s the _mission_?” Ward said as Skye started looking at the houses with interest. 

“Couples have been going missing,” said Coulson. “S.H.I.E.L.D. have enough reason to believe there’s something fishy going on that they want to send two agents and that’s enough for us.” 

Ward nodded, ignoring Skye’s excitement over the houses. “Anything else?” 

“It’s a long-term op,” said Coulson. Ward’s spine straightened out as he tensed up and Skye looked around at Coulson. 

“Long-term?” she said. 

“It means it could be anything from six months to years,” said Ward, the tension in his body also evident in his voice. 

“Years?” said Skye. 

“The missing couples have all lived there from between six months to five years,” said Coulson, watching the two of them. “If you take the mission, you’ll be going _deep_ undercover. You’ll be expected to live your covers to the full, so your covers will be tweaked versions of your real histories. We’ll arrange dead drops and communication zones, and you’ll have a bug-sweeper built into your phones which you’ll need to run daily and every time you return home, but other than that you’ll not be able to communicate with S.H.I.E.L.D. or us, at all. The houses we’ve tapped have basements, into which we’ll build a gym for the two of you. Ward’s cover will be as a fitness instructor at the nearby gym, and Skye will work technical support at a company a few miles away. You’ll be expected to integrate into the community, make friends, throw dinner parties, attend barbeques and birthday parties, anything that comes up. You’re to live the cover.” 

“I understand,” said Ward, swallowing. 

“I don’t,” Skye said. “How... much do we live it? If we’re a married couple, am I signing on for prostitution here or---” 

“Skye!” Ward yelped in abject horror. 

“I felt I should ask! If there’s a bug sweeper then there’s going to be bugs and if there’s bugs won’t they be expecting to overhear certain...” She made an unfortunately explicit hand gesture. “... _things_ between a _married couple?_ ” 

Ward winced. 

“Probably,” said Coulson, “but that doesn’t require actually doing it. You can fake the sounds. It can be quite a bonding exercise, actually.” 

May’s lips quirked a tiny bit and Ward squinted at her as Coulson coughed into his hand. “Well that was too much information right there,” said Skye. 

“The fact is,” said Coulson, “the op doesn’t need to start for a week or two. I want you two to take some time, both alone and together, and consider the options. Consider if you really want to do this and if you’re comfortable enough with each other to pull it off. Discuss it between yourselves. If you take the mission, we’ll be your handlers and take care of all the other missions while you’re gone. We’ll take dead-drops to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ ourselves, and we’ll have you monitored at all times. You’ll never be alone. We’ll have your backs.” 

Ward nodded curtly and Skye looked at Coulson without a word. 

“If you have any questions, you can come and ask me,” he said, directly to her. “Any time.” 

“Thanks,” she murmured. 

“Let’s leave them to talk,” Coulson said and stepped away from the table, May moving with him. “Fitz. Simmons.” 

Jemma and Leo snapped their gaze up, blinked a few times and hurried out after the two. 

Skye turned her gaze back to the houses. “I’ve never had a house,” she said. “Well, that’s not true. I had one for a month.” She reached out and expanded one of the houses so she could take a closer look. “Where is this anyway... looks nice...” 

“I don’t think you have an accurate idea of what this is going to be like,” Ward said. “You’re not an agent and we’re not even friends, and you want to go into a high-pressure undercover assignment where we pretend to be _married?_ ” 

She looked around at him, meeting his eyes. “I’m your friend.” 

He swallowed but other than that his face didn’t change. “We don’t get along.” 

“We get along fine.” She turned her gaze back to the hologram. “Do you wanna do this mission or what?” 

“I do what I’m told,” he said. “I think it needs doing and I’m the best man for the job. So, yes, I want to do this mission.” 

“Can you cope with being in close proximity of me for five years?” she asked, looking back at him. 

“I can do my job,” he replied. 

She made a noise of amusement and closed the hologram. “I’m going to get Coulson to give me a run-down of the mission to read over and make a decision. I’ll come talk to you if I need to ask any questions.” 

Ward nodded and looked at her. “Come to my bunk tonight.” 

She made a squeaky noise and eyed him. “Exsqueeze me?” 

He rolled his eyes. “We need to be able to share a bed. I’m not getting into this op if the first thing we find out is we’re incompatible sleepers. Share with me tonight. I’ll even wear pyjamas.” He raised an eyebrow at her. 

She laughed just a little and nodded. “All right,” she agreed. “What time do you turn in?” 

“Ten,” he said. “On the dot. Don’t be late!” He pointed at her as he turned, then he walked away. 

Skye looked at where the hologram of the house had once been, swallowed and walked away too. 

*** 

She stepped over to Ward’s bunk five minutes before ten and opened it up, peering inside. Hers was messy, her meagre possessions strewn all around, clothing too, but his was immaculate, with his stuff in the drawers under the bed and on the shelves at the end of it. His screen was turned off and the blind was pulled down, and she found herself realising just how _small_ the bed was, not a full king like they’d be sharing in the house, but more of a twin. 

“Problem?” Ward said as he stepped up behind her. 

“No,” she retorted. “You want the side by the window or the side by the door?” 

“Door,” he said. She nodded and crawled onto the bed, ass in the air in her pink pyjamas, and sat down by the window, feet bare and pants riding halfway up her shapely calves. Ward squinted at her then sat down on the bed and pulled the cubby door closed. 

And then he pulled his shirt off. 

“Whoa! Hey! Dude! What’re you doing?!” Skye yelped, turning her gaze away. 

“We’re going to be sharing a house,” he said. “If you can’t deal with a locker room situation...” He started unbuckling his pants. 

“You promised pyjamas!” she all but wailed at him, eyes screwed closed. 

“I change in my bunk,” he said. “ _You_ arrived early. I didn’t expect you to be early.” 

“I didn’t want to let you down,” she said, opening her eyes and focussing her gaze on the pillow. She could see him stripping down to his underwear in the corner of her eye. 

“That makes a change,” he replied, pulling on a t-shirt. “This okay by you?” 

She faltered and looked around. He’d put on a fresh, black t-shirt, and he had some boxers on. “That’s fine,” she said. “Are these okay?” She gestured at her soft pink pyjama pants and vest. 

“You’re fine,” he promised. He scooted up the bed and lay down on his back and she watched him for a moment before turning and lying down beside him. They both watched the ceiling without speaking, Skye counting the lines, lips mouthing the numbers without making a sound. 

“What’re you doing?” She turned her head and Ward had been watching her. 

“I was just...” She gestured at the ceiling. “Counting.”

“Counting... the ceiling?” 

She shook her head. “There’re grooves, lines, I dunno what they are, but... I count, to sleep, I... count.” 

He didn’t take his eyes off her. “Most people count sheep.” 

“I can’t count imaginary animals,” she said. “Doesn’t work for me. I have to have something physical to count or I can’t sleep.” 

“How high do you count?” he asked. 

“Not high,” she said. “Twenty or thirty. There’re fifty-five grooves up there, it’s enough.” 

“Are you obsessive-compulsive?” he asked. 

She laughed out loud. “Oh, god no!” she exclaimed. “Have you seen my bunk? Nooo. I’m not OCD at all, I just... it’s just a habit to me, from St. Agnes.” 

He nodded understandingly and reached down, pulling the covers over them both. “If tonight isn’t a bust,” he said. “I’m okay with doing the mission if you are.” 

She looked back at the ceiling. “I am,” she said. “I want to. I really do. I want to earn my stripes and I want to do a good thing and you need someone on your team for this and I want to be that person.” 

Ward nodded and glanced at the clock. “I’m going to sleep now,” he said and rolled over, his back to her. 

She didn’t take her eyes off the ceiling, starting over her counting.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who gave kudos and reviewed. Here's chapter 2!

**June**

Coulson eyed his two agents. "And you're both sure?" he said. "Because once you sign these papers there's no going back. I mean, there is, but HQ won't like it."

Skye nodded. "I'm sure," she said and looked at Ward, who shrugged.

"I won't back out," he promised.

Coulson picked up two files, leafing through both for a moment before handing them over, one to each agent. "Here you go," he said. "There are some gaps you'll need to fill in. Fitzsimmons will take some wedding photos of you in front of a green screen in the lab and Fitzsimmons will do some Photoshop magic so you look married. You'll start your cover next Wednesday when you'll view the house. Because the best cover to remember is one that's like your real life, we're using adjusted versions of your pasts."

Skye nodded and took the file, fingering it nervously. "Are you sure?" Coulson repeated.

"This is my sure face," she promised. "I'm sure."

"Okay then," agreed Coulson. "Dismissed."

Skye got to her feet, nose buried in the file and almost walking into the wall in the process as she tried to get out of Coulson's office. Ward put a gentle hand on her back and nudged her through the doorway and she glanced around, offering him a smile. "Thanks, sorry."

"It's okay." Ward returned her personal space to her, walking just a little away from her as they made their way towards their respective bunks.

"How am I meant to remember all this?" Skye mumbled, reading and rereading the first page of the file. "Can I take it with me?"

"Uh, no," said Ward. "If it's found, we'll have our cover blown."

She flicked through the pages, wrinkling up her nose. "Wait, I have to go on birth control if I'm not already?" She stared at him. "I thought I wasn't expected to do that stuff!"

"It's procedure," said Ward. "If you weren't on birth control we'd have to buy condoms and fake their use, otherwise people would question why you weren't getting pregnant."

She made a low noise and turned her face back to the folder. "Don't they have my medical records?"

Ward watched her for a moment, taking in all her expressions and the slight downward quirk of her lips, then shook his head. "We have some records for our doctor once we get there, but no," he said. "Anything we can get away with  _not_ revealing to the enemy is a plus."

"You think they have doctors on the inside?" she said weakly.

"We don't leave anything to chance," he said.

She sighed and looked back at the paper. "Mister and Missus... Serena and Isaac Chandler," she read off. "Could be worse."

"For you," he said.

She shot him a little smirk. "Not an Isaac?"

"Do I look like an Isaac?" he retorted.

"You  _look_  like a Grant, but I'm guessing I need to forget that for a few years." Her stomach did a tiny unhappy flop at those words and she looked back at the folder.

"Hey." Ward stopped walking and put a hand on her shoulder, coaxing her to turn towards him. "You don't have to do this. You can earn your stripes another way. It's okay if it's too soon."

She narrowed her eyes a little. "Is that a soft and squishy centre you're exposing to me right now?" she enquired. "Because it  _seems_  like one."

"I don't have a..." He took his hand back and folded his arms. "No."

"I was teasing," she said quickly and then shook her head. "I want to do this," she promised. "I'm nervous and I'm  _terrified_ , but... I felt that way towards this too, remember? And sometime the things you're terrified of... they turn out to be the best things you could possibly do. Rising Tide? Brought me here.  _This?_  Best thing in my life. I got a family here. I wanted that so much and I was terrified of it and... it's good.  _This_  is good, and I want to do this. What's a few years if it earns me stripes and trust with S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

He nodded. "So does that make me your brother or?" he said with a little grin, moving away.

"It smiiiiiiiiiles!" she gasped, scampering after him. "A  _really_  annoying big brother. And Fitz is definitely an annoying  _little_  brother. Jemma's mom and AC is dad."

"You really never had a family, did you?" He stopped at his bunk and she swallowed and shrugged.

"Did I get it that wrong?" she said.

"Eh, what do I know?" He opened the door. "Your bunk or mine? I don't mind if you need to get used to it more before..."

She shook her head. "I'm A-Okay," she promised. "I've shared a bed before and if we can cope with that tiny thing I'm sure we'll do  _fine_  with a big one."

He nodded and sat on his bed. "See you in the morning."

She hovered for a moment, holding the file against her chest, then took a few steps back and turned, moving across the plane and slipping into her bunk.

***

She still had her file in her hands at breakfast, and put up a little sign on her phone that said  _Do Not Disturb_ , and she sat through a meeting reading the file over and over, no one stopping her.

After a little while, Jemma thrust a dress at her and smiled. "Your wedding dress!" she exclaimed when Skye looked at her in utter confusion. "For the photos! We need to do your hair, too!"

"I can... do my own hair," Skye said, eyeing the dress. "I thought we were being Photoshopped."

"It's much more effective if we dress you up first. We could Photoshop your heads onto someone else's wedding photo, but if we did that then they could stumble onto the photo on the internet and then boom! Everything would be busted and you wouldn't even  _know!_ "

"So, wedding dress," Skye agreed, nodding. "I'll... change into this now. Where do you need me?"

"Just the lab!" Jemma promised. "We're putting up a green background we can edit out!" She gave her one of the biggest smiles Skye had ever seen and Skye smiled back just a bit. "Makeup too, okay?! But nothing  _too_  much."

"Okay, okay," said Skye. "I'll..."

Jemma skittered out before Skye could finish her thought and she sighed and traipsed back to her bunk, pulling the door closed.

She worked the dress out of the bag and peered at it for a moment. It was surprisingly simple, a lovely clean white with lace straps, the dress itself sleek with a slight mermaid tail at the end. It was slightly longer than Skye was tall, so she knew she'd have to lift the bottom when she walked, and there were white high heels in the bottom of the bag.

She slipped her bra down her shoulders so it became strapless and tugged her clothing off, jeans and then shirt, then she stood in front of the door of her cubby and eyed the dress on her bed.

Not exactly the situation she'd imagined putting one of these on in, now, was it?

She sighed and after combing and straightening and then curling the ends of her hair she wriggled into the dress, failing to zip it up. After a few minutes of wrestling with it, she poked her head out of the cubby. "Fitz! Leo!  _Fitz!_ "

Leo looked around from where he was fetching something from his own. "...yes?"

She waddled out of the bunk with one hand clutching the bottom of her dress and the other holding it up. Leo clapped a hand over his mouth and snickered a little. "Yeah, I know, I'm hil _arious_ ," Skye agreed and turned her back. "Wouldja zip me up please?"

Leo shuffled over. "Ah, yes! Yes. I wasn't laughing at you, I just... Dress. You don't expect a wedding on the Bus! Not that we're holding a wedding, I just never thought I'd see a wedding-Ah." He tugged the zip up and Skye looked at the ceiling, sighing. She liked Leo, she really did, but sometimes - just sometimes - she wanted to tell him to stop talking. Now was one of these times.

The zip reached between her shoulder blades and he smiled. "There we go! You look lovely, by the way!"

"Thanks," she said and turned back around. "I'll be there in a minute." She stepped back into her bunk and glanced at herself in her mirror. She looked like a bride.

"Blegh," she informed herself and headed to the lab.

***

It was a couple of minutes of wrestling with the tail of her dress later that she finally got the walk down, lifting the front just a little and entering the lab. Ward glanced up, blinked exactly three times, his eyes widening just a little, and Skye pulled a face at him. "Don't laugh."

"Robots don't laugh," he informed her. He was all dressed up in a suit and tie and although she'd seen him in a similar outfit before this time it was much more impressive somehow.

She took a breath and walked over to him. "Hi, so, let's... do this thing so I can get out of the dress, yeah?"

He nodded and looked at Jemma and Leo as they set up the webcam to take the shot, bickering quietly over the angle and the placement and  _do you really think they'd get married at a church, change the background, Fitz!_

Skye sighed. "Guys, the location doesn't matter, it's not like we're  _really_  getting married, I don't care about the venue."

"But the venue is part of the story!" Jemma exclaimed and Skye instantly regretted opening her mouth. "Usually  _religious_ people are the ones who have a church wedding, and a church wedding would mean at least one of you was some branch of Christianity. Do you go to church together? Do you have a cross necklace or a bible in your house? Skye, since you seem to be at least partially Asian in origin, you may have Buddhist, Taoist or even  _Islamic_  religous affiliations! And that's just assumptions made from the dominant religions in China and isn't at all including the religions practiced in Japan, Korea or America, although your Asian strikes me more as Chinese than any other! It's important to play the part to the full, Skye, and get all the details agreed upon in advance!"

"Hotel," said Skye. "Just... go with a nicely decorated hotel that although has a real-world location if we're asked can be just about anywhere if glanced at."

Jemma and Leo exchanged glances and turned back to the computer and Skye looked at Ward. "Hotel's okay, yeah?"

He shrugged. "I don't care," he said.

"You've never thought about it?" she coaxed.

He met her eyes. "Not even once. Never have, never will."

"Okay!" Jemma exclaimed. "We're ready if you'd like to pose."

Skye nodded and turned her back to Ward, who... did nothing. "...put your arms around me."

"What?" he said.

"It's a wedding photo," she said, "put your robotic arms around me!"

"I don't see why I have to do that," he said. "Lots of married couples take a photo with a few feet of space between them."

"Yes, and then they get divorced the next year because he was a gay Australian trying to get a Visa. Arms. Around me."

He didn't move.

"How are we supposed to have a wedding night if you can't even touch me?" she demanded, looking around at him. "Most newly wedded couples have had sex  _numerous_  times before their wedding these days, and meanwhile  _you're_ acting like someone from the eighteen hundreds, except! They used to touch on their wedding!"

"We're not going to  _have_  a wedding night!" he exclaimed.

"I'm playing the part so we have to pretend we're going to," she informed him. "Because playing the part is  _important_." She held out her hand. "At least hold my hand, you giant great stick-in-the-mud."

He eyed her for a moment then took her hand. His was gentle and soft except for his fingertips, the callouses on which rubbed against her hand as he held it. "Happy?"

"Ecstatic." She stepped in front of him a little, rested her head against his shoulder with her spine against his chest and smiled at the camera.

Ward put on a smile too.  _Click. Click. Click. Click._

"I think we have some nice ones, don't you, Fitz?" Jemma said.

"At least one will work, yes," he agreed.

"Oh thank  _god_  for that," Skye breathed and drew away, Ward retracting his hand like hers had infected him with a plague of some sort.

"You forgot something." Coulson walked into the room and Skye looked around, following the sound of his voice. "Catch." He tossed three small and shiny items at Ward, one after the other, and the specialist caught them in his hand.

"Oh," he said.

Skye peered past his arm at the pretty engagement ring and the two little gold bands in his hand and wrinkled her nose up.

Ward turned. "Hand."

She blinked rapidly at him. "Five seconds ago you were terrified of touching me."

"Sometimes we have to do things that scare us," he informed her, eyes sparkling, and it occurred to her that he was  _teasing_. Like  _humans_  did. "And I'm playing the part. Hand."

She offered out her left hand and Ward smiled just a little as he slipped the engagement ring onto her left ring finger, then followed it with the gold wedding band. Skye never took her eyes off the two rings, the engagement ring was a simple but elegant and beautiful diamond solitaire ring and the gold band was slightly tarnished, probably deliberately. Ward's fingers were gentle as they put the ring on hers, and she almost managed to not notice the little  _click click click_  as Jemma and Leo photographed the scene for more photos.

"Let me do yours," Skye murmured, quiet enough only he could hear in case he wanted to just say no without being told off by Coulson or laughed at by Jemma or Leo. He offered out the gold band without a word, but there was a glint in his eye that she translated to, she hoped, mean that he was grateful for it.

She took his hand in hers, lifting it and trying to put the ring on his finger with the same grace and gentleness he'd exhibited with her. She wiggled it past his knuckle, idly noting that S.H.I.E.L.D. knew both their ring sizes, and then smiled up at him.

"Ow," he informed her, but she could tell he was teasing and she laughed a little.

"I thought you masked your pain in front of beautiful women," she teased right back.

He winced. "That... was a tactical... no."

She turned her back, his hand still in hers, and twisted his arms around her. "There," she said. "Comfier than I imagined. I thought it'd be like leaning against a rock."

Jemma started clicking more photos and Ward laced his fingers with Skye's. "Nah, I'm not that hard." He paused, faltering, and she started laughing, doubling over.

He made some little noises of amusement and she looked around at him, grinning with her fingers still twined with his. "Oh really!"

 _Click, click, click, click_.

"I didn't mean that the way it came out," he informed her, but his lips were quirking in a tiny smirk. "I meant it like... Like..."

"Like you're soft?" she tried.

"No!"

"Like your muscles are soft?"

"No."

"...like you're a softie?"

" _Skye_."

She pursed her lips to keep from laughing more and looked around at Jemma with a smile on her face.

 _Click_.

"I think we're done!" Jemma exclaimed happily. "You can both change now."

"Oh thank god," Skye said yet again and for a second she didn't release Ward's hand, then she tugged her fingers free of his gentle grip and took a few steps away from him. Her feet tangled up in the bottom of the dress and she stumbled with a squeak, and he instantly caught her in his arms.

 _Click_.

She squinted up at him. "...wanna carry your bride back to her bunk so she doesn't get herself killed or break her nose?"

"Not really," he replied.

She pouted a little and let him straighten her up and then release her. "Jeans, jeans definitely jeans," she said and lifted her skirts to her calves, trotting away.

Ward tilted his head just a little and watched her go.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick note: There will rarely if ever be updates of this at the weekend. I can't focus when my dad is here and he gets home Friday night and leaves Sunday night. This week he's off work sick, so updates will definitely be slower.
> 
> Thank you all for your continued interest and love. You keep me writing.

**June**

Three days of Skye burying her nose in the file passed and then finally Ward sat by her and said, "Let me teach you some memory tricks."

She peered up at him. "You waited three days... _three whole days_... to offer that...?"

"I thought I'd give you chance to find your own," he said. "Do you want my help or not?"

She huffed at him and nodded, not looking back at the file. "So far the most I've got is... I'm Serena Chandler, married to Isaac Chandler. I'm twenty-six years old and I work technical support. I have some other random facts but I can't... memorise them. I tried making them into a song but that didn't go well."

"Never use anything musical for remembering a cover story," Ward warned.

"Why?" Skye replied, frowning at him.

"Earworms," he said and she could tell he was super-serious because his serious face looked different from his super-serious face. "You learn things from a song and you tend to learn it because it gets stuck in your head. Singing your cover story? Not the best idea."

She nodded as she considered that. "That makes sense."

He smiled at her just a little and nodded back. "Some of the tricks I use depend on if I'm working alone or with someone, or at least preparing with someone. With someone, I like to use the twenty-questions trick. We each ask each other questions about our cover story and answer them then check we're right. We note which questions we get wrong and then focus on those.

"Alone, I create acronyms and memorise words made from sentences," he continued. "But I've always been good at remembering that way. What're you good at remembering?"

She considered that for a moment. "Code. Web addresses. I've never even used bookmarks..."

"So turn it into code," he said. "Memorise the web address of the high school you attended."

She picked up the notepad she'd been using to make notes and started jotting down code, almost like she was planning to build a profile on a website. Ward watched her with interest, and he was silent for the entire twenty minutes she worked. "Okay hit me."

"Hit you?" he said.

"Twenty questions!" she said. "Go!"

He considered for a moment. "Middle name?"

"Lisa," she said. "Serena Lisa, rhymes too. Yours?"

"I don't have one," he said. "Age?"

"Twenty-six," she said. "Yours?"

"Thirty-one," he replied. "How did we meet?"

"Single's bar," she said, "we hit it off right away due to our mutual love of reading."

"Hm, even I might buy that one," he mused.

"You caught my interest when you told me you had a list of a hundred books your teacher gave you to read," she said. "I said I had a kindle bucket list, much more than a hundred, that I kept adding to. We agreed to exchange some recommendations."

"I like it," he said. "Simple but cute."

"What was our first date?" she said.

He considered for a moment. "I took you to a library," he said. "We sat at the back and read, and after a while I put my arm around you."

"The introvert's movie," she said with a grin. "We should exchange more notes over this, so we don't slip up."

"Agreed."

Over the next few minutes they worked their way through the base questions, and Skye managed to remember all of them. "Nice work," Ward said.

"I know my trick now," she said with a grin.

"We need to keep going through them though," he said, "because you mouthed your code under your breath every time you answered a question, which is fine but... revealing. We also need to agree on a story about children."

She flicked her gaze up to him. "Oh?"

"Most married couples get asked when they're having kids," he said. "Why aren't we trying?"

She shrugged and played with the corner of her paper. "I'm focussed on my career? You... have hang-ups from your childhood? Just don't want them? Not ready yet? Want to be financially stable? I can't have children?"

"Not the last one, we'd need medical evidence to back that up on your file," he said and she nodded, watching the paper. "We've discussed it and we're not quite ready for that kind of commitment yet."

"Agreed." She added that to her code quietly. "Ever thought about it? Having kids?"

"No."

"Why?" She looked up at him.

"I'd need someone to have kids with," he said, looking back at her. "And I don't do that."

"We both know you do that." Skye glanced across at May where she was talking to Coulson. "She okay with this?"

"I don't do _relationships_ ," Ward said. "She doesn't get a say because we're not in a relationship. We had a brief-"

"Fling," Skye supplied.

" _Release of tension_ ," Ward said, eyeing her. "With no commitments or-"

"Relationshippiness."

"Would you stop?" Ward scowled at her. "We're nothing, she's nothing, it's over, done, and we're not talking about it."

"If it's over it began," Skye pointed out.

"Then it's-!" Ward broke himself off, huffing. "For a moment there, we were actually getting along."

"Yeah, I decided I should fix that." Skye chewed on the end of her pen.

"She's fine with it," Ward said after a moment. "The job always comes first, and May and I have no feelings clouding our vision."

"Point received loud and clear," Skye said.

"We need to discuss procedure." Skye twisted around and Coulson was standing right there.

"Creepy, AC, very creepy," Skye praised. "Excellent level of creepiness."

"Thank you, Skye," was Coulson's reply. "Time to go."

***

The house they were checking out was lovely, with three bedrooms, a garage and a basement, and a cute little kitchenette attached to the living room. "This is beautiful," Skye said honestly as they trailed inside the house after the estate agent. She reached out, slipping her hand into Ward's, and he immediately tugged his away, out of her grip.

She glanced at him. "Don't you think it's beautiful, honey?"

"It's lovely." He somehow managed to sound like he was smiling, even though he wasn't, and then smiled when the estate agent looked around.

"The last owners painted it this colour," the agent said, referring to the hideous green walls and the tacky red carpet. "But I'm sure you two can spruce it up with your own personal touch in no time at all! Which _I_ personally think is a delightful thing for a new couple do to together! A bonding exercise!"

"I don't know, red and green... it's like _Christmas!_ " Skye joked and Ward choked on a laugh. She glanced at him, trying to figure out if he was really laughing or if he was faking it, and smiled.

The agent laughed and nodded. "Well, if that's what you like," she said. "Would you like to see the rest of the house?"

Skye nodded and when the agent turned away she tried to take Ward's hand again. He, yet again, evaded her, and trotted after the agent with a chirp of, "I'd like to see the basement. I want to put a gym in."

***

After putting an offer in for the house, Skye and Ward returned to the Bus and Skye frowned, trailing after him until she had him alone by his bunk. "Ward."

He looked around. "Yes?"

"What was that back there?" she demanded.

He blinked at her and she sighed because he was honestly confused, so she moved closer. "I tried to hold your hand and you wouldn't let me. _Twice_."

"Oh," he said and shrugged. No explanation.

She watched him for a moment. "Kiss me."

"What?" He looked as stunned as she felt.

"Kiss me," she repeated. "Married couples? They kiss. They hold hands. They snuggle up and they hold each other. They hold hands in front of and around people, they kiss in front of their neighbours and they touch. You can't even hold my hand, what're you going to do the first time you need to kiss me to sell it?"

"...not kiss you," he said. "Some people don't PDA."

"And when we're being monitored and we need them to know we're serious?" she demanded.

"I'll kiss you then," he decided.

She stared at him. "First kisses _look like first kisses_ ," she said. "There's a certain _thing_ about them. It's going to be extra awkward since we've never done it before and you're clearly about as attracted to me as you are to a sea slug. So kiss me if you don't want to blow our cover."

"I won't blow our cover," he promised. "But I'm not kissing you."

"You're going to have to at some point," she said.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." He opened the door to his bunk, slid inside, and closed it in her face.

"You're a jerk," she informed the door and walked away.

***

"Once you get out of this car you're on your own," said May as she pulled the car up by another. "This is your car and these are your phones." May offered out two smartphones. "The weather app is always wrong and says it's cloudy, if it says it's sunny your house has been bugged. Do you remember the procedure?"

Skye nodded, playing with her rings as she took the phone off May and Ward did she same. They'd spent a week going over and over their cover stories and over and over the procedure for dead drops and for living their cover. She knew it so well she could quote it in Coulson's voice if she wanted to. But whereas before she'd been confident they could do it, now all she could hear in her head was _I'm not kissing you_.

He'd sworn he wouldn't blow their cover, but now she was sure he would. Him, of all the people. Wasn't this backwards?

"We know the procedure," Ward swore as he pocketed his phone. Skye followed suit with her own and picked her bag up from the foot well as Ward got out of the car.

"Good luck," May offered. Skye smiled at her, just a bit, weak and unhappy, and May frowned. "It's not too late."

"I want to do this," Skye said. "It's him that doesn't."

May glanced at Ward in her mirror and looked at Skye. "Once he's in his cover, he'll be fine," she promised her. "So will you. He'll warm up."

Skye opened her mouth then pulled a face. "You'd know about that," she teased.

May rolled her eyes. "Get out."

Skye skittered out of the car and shut the door behind her as Ward got into the second car, starting it up. "Ready?" she checked as she got in the passenger side.

He nodded. "Ready," he agreed and pulled the car out.

She watched him as he drove, watching his hands on the steering wheel and the concentration on his face. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

She sighed and looked out of her window. "And chatty."

"What do you want me to say?" he said.

"Reassure me," she replied. "This is my first deep-cover op, I've never done anything like this before. Reassure me I'm not making a huge mistake. Reassure me you're not going to get us both killed!"

"I'm not going to get us both killed," he said, his jaw tensing, glancing in the mirror.

"You say it, but I don't believe it right now," Skye said, watching him. "You won't hold my hand, you won't kiss me. What happens when you have to say you love me?"

He didn't reply.

"Fine, how about this," she said. "When you say you love me, what you're really saying is we need to do some training. And when I say I love you? I'm telling you you're an ass."

He made a low noise of amusement. "Fine."

She looked back out of the window. "I love you," she informed him.

He snorted and looked at her. "I don't have a fitting response to that code."

"Not sorry," she replied.

He looked back at the road and kept driving without another word.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to skip this if you don't wanna know why this chapter took so long and how long it'll be until the next, but here's the story...
> 
> When my dad's home he's very distracting, and my PC (which is a very heavy gaming rig) is right next to his laptop that he never moves. Because of this, the amount of writing I can get done zips down to about 3% of what it is during the week (he leaves on a Sunday night, gets back on a Friday night).
> 
> I had planned to put out a couple of chapters a week until the fic was finished, taking breaks at the weekend to maybe edit my novel, and then my dad took a week off work because he was sick.
> 
> That was fine, a week was fine... And then I got sick. I'm already sick (I suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) so sick on top of sick is difficult for me to cope with. I got no writing done because I was either in bed or half-dead most of the time, so this week (16-20th) I've still been trying to recover and writing hasn't exactly come easily, but here we are!
> 
> I'm gonna try and get another chapter out before the weekend and at least one over Christmas, but updates should get back to normal around the 7th. Thanks for still giving kudos, reviewing and encouraging, guys!

 

**June**

The boxes in the back of the car were a mixture of Skye and Ward's things, plus cover story items, including old possessions, new possessions and albums of photos. They'd taken most of the photos over the period between the wedding shots and the ride to the house, and Skye had been horrified when she'd been put in a wig with bangs and Jemma had smiled and said, "You need to look younger for this one!"

_Younger_. Skye sighed and watched out of the window as Ward drove. As it stood now, she couldn't _feel_ younger if she tried. She felt like just a kid. She'd never done this, never lived with a guy - let alone married one - or even had a steady relationship. There'd been Miles but she'd lived in her van and he'd lived in his apartment and their sleepovers were just that. She didn't live in his home and he didn't live in hers. She'd never even had an apartment, but now she was getting a house?

She pulled the cap off her bottle of water and drank a few mouthfuls as she watched the road go by. "Anything I should know about you?" she asked after a moment.

"What?" Ward said.

She glanced around at him. "Like... funny sleeping quirks or allergies I should avoid if I try and cook or something like that."

He didn't reply, watching the road, and she looked away again, thinking back to when he'd been on truth serum, thinking about all the things she'd've asked him if she'd known him better just then. Except... she wouldn't. If she knew him as well back then as she did now, she simply wouldn't have asked him a thing beyond what she needed for the mission. She'd've known that he was a private person, that he opened up in his own time.

"Latex."

She looked back at him. "What?"

"I'm allergic to latex," he grumbled. "It's not a big allergy but it makes me _itchy_." He flexed his neck and she watched him.

"Oh, well, now I know why you got me on the pill," she joked and he didn't reply except to give her a sideways scowl. "That was a joke, Mister Grumpy Pants."

"I'm only Grumpy Pants when I'm itchy," he replied and she stared at him.

"Was that a joke?" she said excitedly, sitting up and peering at him. "Did you just _joke?_ "

He kept his gaze focussed on the road. "I'm not at liberty to answer that."

"Was that _two?!_ " she squealed. "Did you just make two jokes?! Is this a car thing?! Are you only capable of joking if you're in a car?!"

He eyed her and didn't speak.

"You're only not talking because you're scared you'll joke again," she said, settling back down against her seat. "I'll remember the latex allergy. No latex gloves or anything like that."

"Why would you have latex gloves?" he said.

"Cleaning," she replied. "Cleaning bathrooms or blood stains."

He eyed her some more. "Blood stains?"

"Yeah, Ward, girl parts aren't like boy parts," she said.

He pulled a face and looked back at the road. "I know that."

"I may have to check and make sure with May," she said.

His _I-Would-Be-Facepalming-If-I-Didn't-Have-Dignity_ expression crossed his face again and he tensed his jaw.

"You know, it wouldn't hurt you to relax sometimes," she said, watching him. "Smile, laugh, crack jokes, dance around when your favourite song comes onto the radio."

"I don't have a favourite song," he replied.

She squinted at him. "Everyone has a favourite song, even if it's just a song they don't hate."

"I don't," he said as he pulled the car onto their new street.

Skye swallowed, looking around. The houses were all clumped together but not too close, and their house was detached from all the others. She could see a couple outside a house across the street from theirs, their kids playing on the grass, and a blonde woman unloading her shopping, and she went through the list in her head. "Leah and Eddie Oaken and their two sons, James and Peter," she murmured and Ward followed her gaze as he drove, "and... the blonde is Alexandra Peterson. She has a seventeen year old daughter, Ella."

"I memorised the record too," Ward said.

"I know," she said. "I'm testing myself. Did I get it right?"

"Yeah, but you need to remember you don't know them," he said.

"I _don't_ know them," she said. "Just their facts." She smiled just a little at the couple as they drove past and then looked back at Ward. "How do we make friends?"

"Little neighbourhood like this?" he said. "Friends'll make us."

Skye nodded as though she had any experience whatsoever with this and undid her seatbelt as Ward pulled into the driveway. "We should decorate."

" _What?_ " He looked around at her.

"The house. The colours are horrible, we should decorate..." Skye said. "It'd make us look serious, and it could be fun. What colour would you paint the walls?"

He eyed her. "I wouldn't."

She sighed. "Fine," she said flatly and got out of the car, smiling at the couple across the road.

"Welcome to the neighbourhood!" the lady, Leah, shouted.

"Thanks!" Skye replied happily.

"I'll unload the car while you open up the house, okay?" Ward said and his lips pressed to her hair, arm around her skinny body. She closed her eyes for a second, smiling at the moment of affection she had never been used to, and then nodded as he moved away, hunting through her purse to find her keys.

When she looked up, Leah had crossed the road. "Hi, I just _had_ to come greet you before you scampered on in there!"

Skye smiled a little. "Oh yeah?"

"Yes, absolutely! I'm Leah, Leah Oaken, I live right over there with my husband Eddie and my two boys!" Leah grinned at her and Skye smiled back.

"I'm Serena, this is my husband Isaac." She gestured at Ward who shot them a smile as he unloaded the boxes from the car, and she wondered if Ward smiling so freely would ever stop being weird.

"It's an absolute pleasure to meet you and welcome you to our little neighbourhood," Leah said, beaming at her. "I was so surprised when I saw someone had bought that house! I've seen the interior, after all, it's like Christmas in there, but nowhere near as pleasant!"

Skye laughed a little. "That's exactly what I said to Isaac," she said, the name feeling strange on her tongue when her mind said _Ward_.

"Let me get you the address of a lovely little shop," Leah said, "they do lovely paints and wallpapers and you can either choose them yourself for your decorator or you and your husband can have a lovely time painting over that hideousness!"

"That'd be fan _tastic_ ," Skye said with a genuine smile. "Wouldn't it, honey?" She looked over her shoulder at Ward and he gave her a straight-lipped smile.

"Not quite the word I'd use," he said as he started carrying boxes over to the front door.

"Ignore him," Leah coaxed, "he's just like my Eddie. I swear, the only room he has interest in decorating is the bedroom! And even then he doesn't choose colours."

Skye laughed again as Ward came to stand by her side. "This one doesn't decorate, do you?"

He eyed her. "Too many chemical fumes."

"See?" Skye said. "All the excuses in the world."

"Honestly I can't get Eddie interested in _any_ of this stuff," Leah said. "He won't choose paint swatches, won't decorate. The only interest he had in painting the nursery was the having a baby part! And it wasn't the having he was interested in, if you know what I mean!"

Skye snickered a little. "I can imagine," she said.

"Honestly we wouldn't have two children if I didn't tell him it was trying for a baby or _nothing_ ," she said.

"I'll have to remember that trick for this one eventually!" Skye said and let the back of her hand smack very lightly into Ward's abdomen.

"You better not," he said in response.

Skye grinned at Leah who laughed and glanced over her shoulder as one of her boys called for her. "Anyway! I better go but I'm sure I'll see you later! It was lovely meeting you, honestly!"

"You too!" Skye said as Leah jogged across the street. She looked at Ward.

"I think she's evil," he mused, watching her go. "We should keep an eye on her."

"I think she's lovely, _honestly_ ," Skye said with just a little hint of mockery. "I made a friend. Be happy for me, honey!"

"Honey." He eyed her.

"Your name is weird," she grumbled. "Honey sounds better." She pushed past him and unlocked the front door of the house, stepping inside. "Weather?"

He checked his phone in the doorway. "Cloudy," he said.

"You need a new app," Skye said with a grin.

"Maybe I'll get one in a few years." He picked up one of the bigger boxes and hauled it inside and Skye scooted outside, collecting another and following after him. "You don't have to do that, I can do it," he offered over his shoulder.

"No way, I've never moved into a place before," she said. "I want the full experience!" She put the box down at the bottom of the stairs when it got too heavy and groaned. "Okay, ow, ow, the full experience hurts, ow..." She straightened out her back, hand on her spine and whimpered in pain.

"Here." Ward stepped up behind her and she stilled, like moving would scare him away like a wild deer. His one hand settled on her shoulder and the other on the side of her lower back and she closed her eyes as his hands expertly soothed and eased the muscle she'd pulled carrying more than she was able. "Better?"

She smiled just a little and nodded. "Yeah, thanks. Where'd you learn to do that?"

He shrugged. "Nowhere special," he said and his hands moved away, leaving her back cold and lonely.

"Which boxes go upstairs?" he asked as she turned back around.

"Uhh, that one and that one," she said, gesturing at the biggest and a small one. "Bedroom and bathroom. The rest are kitchen and just odds and ends."

"I'll take these up," he said, picking up one of the biggest boxes like it weighed nothing. "Can you move the smaller ones in?"

She watched him for a moment because damn if that wasn't an attractive sight, even if it _was_ Ward. "You listening to me?" he said.

She blinked a few times and then nodded, swinging her arms as she moved towards the front door. "In! Yes, I can do the in thing. Bringing them in."

He squinted at her in suspicion for a moment then disappeared upstairs.

She eyed one of the boxes as it sat on the porch and tilted her head.

She hadn't really thought this mission through, had she?


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An update! Shocking, I know, I know, you all thought I'd been knocked off by Hydra.
> 
> Soooooo here's the story for anyone who wants to hear it. If you don't, scroll down, if you do here goes.
> 
> My computer died at the start of this year. Along with it disappeared my S.H.I.E.L.D. episodes. This would've been fine but it left me on my dad's computer which blue screens constantly and barely functions, so any writing I attempted to do was in danger of being lost constantly. Understandably, I think, this meant I stopped being able to write, because every time I opened my writing app all I could think of was losing my work. I also couldn't rewatch the episodes for inspiration because they weren't on my teeny tiny hard drive. I was also stranded on the most horrible keyboard known to man, and my life was so laggy that it took ages for each key press to catch up.
> 
> I still don't have my computer back. It's still not functioning. I now have a shiny new laptop that works well and has a large amount of hard drive space, so I redownloaded my S.H.I. . episodes… right in time for Turn, Turn, Turn, which effectively screwed my entire fic up.
> 
> It took me a while to properly get over the events of that episode, and now I'm back with a plot! And with a decision.
> 
> This fic is completely AU. Imagine S.H.I.E.L.D.'s first season as just a villain-of-the-week. Six plucky individuals saving the day from a different threat every week, Skye slowly earning her stripes and Ward training her all the while. Remove Hydra from the equation and that is what you have here. It's what we assumed life was before Turn, Turn, Turn.
> 
> Facts from later episodes will be taken into account (Skye's official name, for instance) so life will not be spoiler-free, but Hydra is taken completely out of the equation. The centipede project was a stand-alone project and the Clairvoyant was never a thing. The fic starts in June 2014, allowing Skye a year for becoming an agent before it begins.

 

**June**

They spent the afternoon unpacking the boxes. Skye lined the shelves with the photographs of the two of them Simmons had put into frames and Ward put the kitchen items away, the silverware, plates and assorted utensils their team had bought for them for their cover.

Skye could all but hear Fitz and Simmons debating the perfect colour for the plates. Was white too boring for Skye's personality? Was fuchsia too pink for Ward? She supposed that was why they had eight sets of plates, dishes and bowls in various colours from white to pink to blue, plain. Not a flower was to be seen on any of them.

"I like the knives," Ward commented as he slipped them into the knife rack she could almost _smell_ Fitz on. His hand balanced the weight in his palm and she watched him, his face getting the feel of the weapon.

"It's for cutting food," she said, reaching out and tugging it from his hand by the handle and dropping it into the rack. "Should I be _concerned_ for my longevity?"

He didn't reply as he opened one of the counters and started putting the multicoloured bowls away.

"I'm going to go unpack my stuff upstairs," she said, taking a few steps for the doorway. "Come join me when you're done down here, honey?" She smiled at him, deliberately not looking through their kitchen window, the one that looked out across their pool and into the house next door. She could remember the profiles of that family like she could remember her own name: Sally and Terrence Keese, with their teenage children, Angel and Evelyn. She'd paid close attention to them, and to the Oaken family on their other side and across the street. She knew if anyone was going to spy on them, it'd be them or the families in the houses across the street to the right of their front door. She knew all their names too. Once she'd started reading the file, she'd gotten... paranoid.

"I'll be up in a few minutes." He gave her another of the eerie and rare smiles and she nodded, turning and making her way through the house and up the stairs, turning into the bedroom.

The boxes containing Skye's possessions and a few of the things they'd bought new to add to her things were already at the end of the bed, along with Ward's boxes, and she moved the two groups apart to begin with, careful not to end up going through his stuff, then she opened up the biggest box.

The wedding dress - _her_ wedding dress, she supposed she needed to remember to say - was folded up in one of the bags, and she pulled that out first, carrying it over to the large walk-in closet and picking a side to be hers then tucking it into the back on a hanger.

When she stepped back out, the first thing she saw was the bed and how comfortable it was. She licked her lips and took a few steps towards it, reaching out and poking the mattress.

The beds on the bus were comfortable and she always slept well, but the bed in her van and the bed she slept with at St. Agnes had never been anything short of _painful_ , and she'd never slept in such a large or comfortable-looking bed before.

She clambered onto it, grinning a bit, and flopped on her back, spread diagonally across the covers, closing her eyes.

"I thought you were unpacking," Ward's voice said after a few moments of her just lying there, quietly enjoying how comfortable her sleeping was going to be for the next few years. She opened her eyes and sat up, eyeing him.

"I was, but then the bed tempted me," she said. "We made a good choice." Of course, by _we_ she meant _her_ because he'd refused to partake in picking furniture for their mtuual accomodations.

"I thought so." He smiled and sat on the end of the bed, opening up one of _his_ boxes. "Comfy then?"

She nodded, watching him and wondering how he found it so easy to just... fake smile, constantly. "Yeah!" she said. "It'll be better once you're in it though." She slid down to the end of the bed too, sitting next to him. "Did we forget anything?"

He shook his head. "Nothing to forget," he said and pulled clothes from his bag. "Which chest of drawers do you want?"

She gestured at the one by the window, opposite the door. "I like the light."

He nodded and got to his feet, moving away from her with his underwear and a few t-shirts. She watched him, dark eyes taking in every motion and movement of his body. "Gonna go unpack the stuff into the bathroom. I'll do this stuff last. You get the left side of the closet." She stood up and waited for an acknowledgement, then when one didn't come, sighed and walked for the bathroom.

* * *

Unpacking took the better part of the afternoon and Ward disappeared down into the basement for the last chunk of it, installing his exercise equipment. Skye didn't follow for a while, leaving him to his solitude, instead curling up on their comfy sofa and flicking through the television channels they had access to.

"We need Sky," she said as she trudged down into the basement at around seven. He'd set up most of the equipment, the punching bag first and foremost it seemed, closely followed by a bar for pull-ups.

He looked around at her and his eyes actually sparkled in amusement as he said, "I've never really found a use for Sky."

Her lips quirked. "Good shows. Sports! You like sports, right?"

He bopped his fist into the punching bag as he walked by it and over to her. "I like sports," he agreed, meeting her eyes. "Not sure Sky is worth it though."

"I want Sky," she said, grinning a bit. "Don't you want Sky? Come on. Say you want Sky."

His smile seemed genuine this time, the amused sparkle in his eye getting a little brighter. "Nah, I'm not saying that," he said.

"Pleaaaaaaaase?" She scampered after him when he started to walk further into the basement again.

"Nope." He paused. "Un _less_..."

"Unless what?" she said, swinging her hands and watching him. "What's the unless?"

"Unless," he said again, "you can do five pull-ups."

She stopped walking and eyed the bar he'd set up, then eyed him. "...if I do five pull-ups we can get Sky and you'll say you want it?" she checked.

He nodded. "I swear."

She moved over to the bar and eyed it a moment. She knew she _could_ do it, she just _hated it,_ so she trudged over and reached up, simply holding the bar for a moment as she adjusted her grip, then she lifted herself up until her chin was above the bar, then lowered herself down.

 _One_. The first one was always difficult because she always psyched herself out due to _not wanting to do it_. The second was always the easiest, so she closed her eyes and pulled herself up again. _Two_.

"Two," Ward agreed as her feet hit the floor again.

She nodded and lifted herself up again, then lowered herself back down. "Three," Ward said and she nodded and this time when she got her chin above the bar it was more of a struggle, every muscle in her body starting to hurt. She made a little whimpering noise and dropped back down.

"Four," Ward said and she took a breath. She didn't _have_ to do five, she didn't, this was just her wanting to screw with Ward, it wasn't training.

But there was also a part that just wanted to make him proud, so she hefted herself up again, kicking her feet a little when she struggled to drag her chin higher than the metal bar, then she made a little unhappy noise as her fingers lost their grip for a moment.

Ward's gentle hands were on her hips within seconds, ready to catch her if she fell, but she didn't, instead reclaiming her grip on the bar and slowly lowering herself back down. "Five?" she said hopefully with a little breathless noise.

He was right there and, despite his hands on her waist just moments before, it took her by surprise to see him so close. "Five," he agreed. "You'll get used to them eventually, I know you will."

She smiled a little and almost forgot what it was she'd wanted.

"Let's get Sky," he said after a moment. "I want it. I want... Sky."

She swallowed hard because she hadn't quite thought through the impact hearing those words could easily have on her entire body. "You do?" she murmured.

"Sure." He stepped away from her. "I like sports, remember?"

She took a moment to let out a sigh. "Blood sports, probably," she grumbled, then followed him up the stairs and out of the basement.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, on the one hand it's been forever again. But on the other hand I'm writing again (not just fanfic either!) and this was a joy to write, and I'm still writing. So… I… call that… progress? Can I call that progress? Maybe?

**June**

"Are you cooking or are we getting takeout?" Skye asked once Ward was done being a basement dwelling hermit and avoiding her.

"I'll cook," he said, nodding. "Did we bring groceries?"

"...takeout it is." She got to her feet off the sofa and picked her phone up off the table. "Grocery run tomorrow."

He eyed her. "What takeout are you going to order?"

"Chinese," she said.

He whined, just a little but nodded.

"I don't know of takeout salad," she said. "Chinese will have to do. It won't kill you."

"I eat Chinese," he argued. "Just...not...often..."

"I figured you ate nuts and bolts," she mused.

He squinted at her.

"Like a robot? 'cause you're a... never mind." She found a number online. "What do you want?"

"I'll eat whatever's going." He sat down next to her when she sat down on the sofa, and draped an arm across the back, behind her head.

She paused and looked at him for a moment, before turning her focus to ordering their food, trying not to lean into his hold. "How's sweet and sour pork?"

"Sounds good," he said and flipped channels, scowling at the television.

She ordered, quoting their new address, then hung up her phone. "You're paying."

"We share the same money," he said.

"You're paying," she repeated.

He eyed her. "All right." He got to his feet

She pulled her legs up under her and leant her head against the back of the sofa, which felt colder without his arm there, and watched the TV.

He sat back down after a minute, pulling cash from his wallet. "How much?"

"I dunno," she said. "I probably should've asked."

He looked around at her. "...why didn't you ask?"

"Well," she said. "I'm not used to ordering food since where I lived before. Plus, when I lived in my van I mostly..."

"Mostly?"

"...grabbed it and drove away."

"Skye!"

"You're such a boy scout," she huffed. "I didn't have much money! And what I _did_ have I used on gas."

He huffed right back at her. "I suppose that's fair," he grumbled. "Better than starving. Why didn't you just get a job?"

She shrugged. "No references and I didn't like staying in one place too long," she said. "Much better to keep on the road, keep moving."

He nodded and flipped another channel.

"Would you stop? I was watching that," she said, grabbing at the remote.

"No." He held it out of reach. "You got to pick the food, I'm picking the channel."

"But you're not _picking_ a channel," she said. "You're flipping and it's driving me mad."

Ward raised an eyebrow the tiniest bit. "It's usually you driving me mad," he mused and flipped to another channel.

"Really," she said. "We're gonna do this? Really. I thought we weren't in third grade."

He turned to yet another channel.

"Stop flipping channels." She scowled at him.

Another channel.

"...never stop flipping channels?" she tried.

Another.

She crossed her arms and huffed. "You're not bothering me."

"All right." He flipped five more channels.

" _I swear to_... Give me that!" She grabbed at the remote.

He managed to contain a yelp. "No!" He held the remote out of reach.

"You're being a five year old," she accused.

"You started it." He paused.

"Yeah, that makes you _more of a five year old_." She knelt on the sofa, flailing a hand trying to reach the remote high above their heads. "Your arms are ridiculously long!"

"Because you're acting so mature right now," he said, eyeing her and just _holding the remote above his head_. It wasn't even a chore for him to keep it out of her reach.

"Just... give me the...!" She grabbed at it, practically jumping up and down on her knees. "WOULD YOU JUST GIVE ME THE..."

He shook his head. "No." He kept his hand and the remote as far from her reach as possible.

She half climbed on top of him and he made a grunting sound as her knee dug into his thigh. He leant back, her hands on his shoulders and his arm twinging slightly from the way he had it held behind him. " _What_ are you doing?"

"Trying to get the remote off you!" She flailed her arm at it.

"You're so short," he said in genuine amusement, one eyebrow raised as he just _looked at her_ climbing all over him trying to get to the remote.

She gaped at him, dropping to her knees in his lap. "I am not... not _short!_ " She crossed her arms. "I am _normal sized_ , you're a _tall freak_. It's like someone put you on the rack when you were a baby and forgot to take you off!"

"Well, metaphorically..." he mused.

She took that opportunity to launch at the remote.

He looped an arm around her, holding her back, and for a moment they were like something out of a cartoon, her with her arms flailing past his hold, fingers all of an inch from the remote, and him holding her back with ease, his arm simply wrapped around her waist. She kept flailing. He kept holding her and the remote.

Then she went limp suddenly.

He made a noise of surprise. "Skye?" he said in worry when she didn't reply, sagged across his lap, arm still holding her up. "Skye." He poked her gingerly with the remote.

Which she instantly grabbed and rolled off him and the sofa with.

He stared at her. "Give me that!" He launched at her and she shrieked and scrambled away across the floor.

"No!" She crawled under the table in the corner.

He stopped and eyed her, becoming aware that he was on his hands and knees, on the floor, chasing after Skye over a remote. Specialists did _not_ act like dogs.

...but since he was already down here...

"GIVE ME THAT!"

She screamed and rolled away as he grabbed at her under the table.

He growled and lunged after her, impacting his head into the table with a loud and dull thumping noise. He stilled, gritting his teeth, and Skye disappeared around the corner by the front door, then peeked around the wall at him. "...you hurt?"

He didn't reply, too busy trying to identify the constellations flashing in front of his eyes to really form words.

She stepped tentatively over to him and crouched by his side. "Where does it hurt?" She put a hand on his head.

...so he grabbed the remote and bolted for the stairs.

She shrieked at him and scrambled to her feet, skidding after him. "ASSHOLE!"

He scrambled up the stairs, wondering where his cool demeanour had gone the entire time, and skidded into the bedroom.

Skye crashed in behind him, tackling him, and he fell down onto the bed, still clutching the remote like it had a dead man's switch and would result in the whole house exploding. She climbed on top of him, lightweight enough that he _could_ just turf her right off but cute enough he didn't really want to, nor did he want to hurt her, and grabbed the remote, yanking on it.

He held it tight, fingers going white. "No!"

She settled on his hips, eyeing his face, and released the remote. "You can't even use it up here," she pointed out.

"I was going to take it back down and use it." He wasn't going to think about where she was sitting, really.

"You're such a bastard," she complained. "Does it not bother you that I've never..." Her lower lip wobbled. "I've never had my own TV before..."

He did not let it affect him. "Well, you still don't."

She narrowed her eyes. "Okay, fine." She hooked her fingers through either side of her plaid shirt and pulled it open, the buttons flying off in the process, exposing her chest and her bra to his eyes.

He stared, fingers loosening around the remote. She just sat there, breasts jiggling a little as she breathed, and grinned. His mouth went dry.

The doorbell rang, presumably with their food.

"Well, at least no one is going to doubt we're having sex now," she mused and grabbed the remote from his loose fingers, jumping off him and skidding for the door. "I'll take this one since you have another in your pants pocket." She disappeared out of the room.

He made a dying noise and sat up, blinking at her shirt on the floor. _Pause_.

"WAIT ARE YOU GOING TO THE DOOR LIKE THAT?!" he shouted and flew after her.


	7. Chapter 7

_**June** _

Ward poked his Chinese and eyed the sweater Skye had pulled on moodily like it was an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D. itself. He wasn't entirely sure what she'd done with the remote once the food had come, either.

"Aren't you enjoying that?" She poked his box with her chopsticks.

"It's fine," he said and took another bite.

"We'll go to the store tomorrow," she said in amusement. "Get all the salad we can find."

He looked up. "Grocery shopping isn't my thing."

"...I'm not going alone," she said. "Maybe we can order online, become hermits..."

He huffed a little. "We're supposed to socialise. I suppose grocery shopping would be a good way of doing that..."

"We will buy all the lettuce in the store," she promised, slipping a piece of chicken between her lips with chopsticks.

He watched the chopsticks for a moment before looking away, back at his food. "Carrots too."

"We will buy out all the health food they have," she agreed, nose wrinkling up a little. She checked her watch. "Should go to bed soon, really."

"I'm not going to wake you up at five to train," he said in amusement, shaking his head.

"I know," she said. "But I have my first day at work tomorrow, and we need to pick up groceries too and this is a new house, I don't know my way around it, and a new routine, so I'll have to get up early no matter what."

He nodded his understanding. "We can put the leftovers in the fridge," he suggested and stood up, moving across and starting to tuck everything away.

Skye turned in her seat, leaning against the back and watching him. "You're very domestic, you know."

He paused and glanced around at her. "Is that a thinly veiled insult... or a thickly padded compliment?"

She grinned a little. "Bit of both, really," she said. "Little of either."

He opened the fridge, putting the food away, then picked up their glasses, putting them in the bowl to rinse. "You're going to make me do the dishes."

"Absolutely," she agreed and bounced to her feet. "But for now... I'm just going to slip the shower out from under you." She scampered for the stairs.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "I guess I'll go second then."

"At least you can flip channels while I'm showering," she chirped over the bannister and bolted the rest of the way upstairs.

* * *

 

She stepped out of a lovely hot shower a little while later, drying her hair with a towel and rooting through her dresser for clothes to wear in bed.

"How long does it take you to- GAH!" Ward did a quick one-eighty in the doorway, hand over his eyes. "I thought you'd died in the shower. Why didn't you..."

"Die in the shower?" She pulled a pair of purple pyjama shorts up her legs.

"Why didn't you get dressed in the bathroom?" he tried.

"Because not many people get dressed in the bathroom," she said, "when they have a sexy husband to tease in the bedroom."

"But I've never- sexy husba- I suppose that makes-" He stopped talking. "Are you dressed yet?"

"Uhh..." She picked up a t-shirt. "Yeah!"

He turned around.

She most certainly was not dressed.

" _That's not dressed_ ," he said, staring at her back and the way her wet hair fell over it.

She looked around at him and _oh god_ , he looked away quickly. "You couldn't see anything!"

"Until you turned around," he said and it was almost a mewl. "I'm just... going to go back downstairs..."

"Don't be silly." She pulled the t-shirt on and it clung to her chest, almost worse than when she had nothing on a moment before. "I'm dressed, see? No more sinful girl parts on display."

"I wish you'd stop..." He shook his head and scooted - although he'd never admit it was a scoot - towards the bathroom.

She watched him from the end of the bed, picking up her hairdryer. "I hope I didn't use all the hot water."

"You better not have!" He slammed the bathroom door.

"Twelve year old," she called after him and started drying her hair.

* * *

 

She was curled up in bed with her laptop on her lap when he came out of the bathroom, a towel slung around his waist. She glanced, paused, looked up, held her breath, lips parting a little as he rummaged for clothes. "Where did I put my..."

"I put your pyjamas in the bottom drawer of your dresser," she said. "The boiler seems to be under there, that spot is always warm, so your pyjamas will be always toasty."

He paused, hand halfway to reaching for that drawer, and looked around. "Why didn't you take this dresser?"

"You look like you could benefit from warm pyjamas," she said with a little smile.

He pulled a shirt and a pair of pants out of the drawer and tilted his head. "They're almost toasty."

"I thought it might make you smile," she said. "Maybe make you less uptight. Warm you up a bit."

"...that was a terrible pun," he said.

"I know." She looked back at her laptop. "I won't look while you change. Scout's honour!"

"You were never a boy scout _or_ a girl scout." He pulled his shirt on over his head, little droplets of water soaking it into it from his hair and she fought to keep her gaze on her laptop screen.

"So? Does that mean I can't have honour?" she said.

"It means you don't have _scout's_ honour," he said.

The bed rocked and dipped as he slid into it next to her. "What're you doing anyway?"

"Just doing some research," she said. "General IT things."

He nodded, lying down and looking at the blank, white ceiling. "I like the house."

"You do?" She glanced over at him.

"Yeah," he said and he wasn't really sure why he was still talking. "It's... nice."

"I like it too," she said, shutting her laptop lid and sliding down to lie level with him, on her back too. "I've never had a house before. When I was little, I always imagined a house like this one. Course... in my head? The front door was always blue."

"Blue?" He looked across at her.

She nodded. "Blue front door. One of the few foster homes I really liked... they had a blue front door. It was the closest I'd ever really felt to home. Course, they sent me back to the orphanage two days later but I still always saw the blue front door and the nice house with the garage in a suburban street. Kids playing..."

"Your kids?" He was still watching her.

"Just... kids," she said. "The kids that lived in the other houses, mostly. Running around in the street, coming over when their balls get lost in our yard."

His lips twitched a little. "Sounds like a nice fantasy," he said.

She shrugged and pulled the covers up to her armpits. "I guess we should sleep."

He nodded and rolled onto his side. "Did you set an alarm?"

She waved her phone. "Yep!"

He chuckled a little. "No alarm clock then?"

"I suppose we could get one, but my alarm app has seventeen settings..."

"Of course it does," he said, watching her in the darkness of their bedroom and smiling in amusement. "Which one did you pick?"

"The loud one," she said, shutting her eyes.

"Of course." He closed his eyes too.

"Goodnight," she said.

"Goodnight," he agreed and let himself drift off to sleep.


End file.
